


Pain in the glass

by Amazilia_beryllina



Category: Ghostbusters (2016)
Genre: F/F, Minor Injuries, a teensy bit of blood, for the most part anyway, pure fluffy fluffiness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-30
Updated: 2016-12-30
Packaged: 2018-09-13 07:34:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,287
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9112966
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amazilia_beryllina/pseuds/Amazilia_beryllina
Summary: More Holtzbert fluff with a smidgeon of angst that passes quickly because I like it best when these two are happy.





	

**Author's Note:**

> It's okay, you can totally roll your eyes at the title. I did.

The four Ghostbusters trudged into headquarters carrying their equipment. The bust had been taxing and drawn out, the report of a single Class IV apparition turning out to be five rambunctious ghosts that refused to go down without a fight. All four women had new bruises to show for their efforts having taken plenty of tumbles in their nearly two hour long battle. At one point they had to take cover and barely missed being pelted by a giant paned glass window one of the apparitions broke, the jagged pieces raining down on the scene.

After shedding their jumpsuits and returning the equipment to its rightful place, Patty headed for the fridge while Abby and Holtz collapsed on the couch, Erin curling up in an armchair. Patty returned with four bottles of beer in hand, passing them out to the others. 

“Erin, I thought you swore off red hair when you finally dyed it back to your natural color,” commented Patty on her way by. “I’m digging those red streaks.”

“What?” Erin looked to Patty in confusion as she ran a hand over her head, flinching when she encountered a tender spot. Pulling her hand back, she found a smattering of blood on her fingers. “Oh.”

Erin’s brain was a little slow to process, but Holtz jumped up from the sofa and grabbed Erin’s wrist, moving to examine her girlfriend’s scalp for herself.

“I guess I didn’t get out of range fast enough when that window broke.” Erin felt Holtz’ grip briefly tighten on her wrist. Looking up at the blonde, she noticed her clenched jaw. “I’m sure it’s fine,” she added in a poor attempt to alleviate Holtz’ worry. 

“Every time the skin is broken you risk infection,” the engineer murmured. She turned her bright blue gaze on Erin. “That’s what you remind me of every time I’m injured in the lab.” Holtz held up a finger wrapped in a Scooby-Doo bandaid to drive home her point. Erin could tell she was trying to tease, but the words came out tight.

Erin sighed, trapped by her own words. “They’re tiny pieces of glass,” retorted Erin, cautiously feeling around on her scalp. “They’ll work their way out soon enough.” 

Holtz tch’d at Erin and tugged her up from the chair. “You’re doing that thing where you try to not be a burden,” Holtz spoke kindly as she tucked Erin’s hand under her arm and led her upstairs. “But this is me you’re talking to and when it concerns your well-being I don’t take it lightly, E.” The brunette blushed when Holtz shot her a knowing look followed up by a smirk that didn’t quite hit its mark since the engineer was unconsciously still clenching her jaw.

Guiding Erin to a stool at her work table, Holtz leaned past the physicist to grab her precision tweezers from atop the table, handing them to Erin to hold onto while she briefly left to rummage through the first aid kit, which was more like a first aid duffel bag. Erin eyed the supplies Holtz carried back and laid out on the workbench.

“Um, as much as I love your gorgeous blonde hair, I prefer to not go the bottle blonde route, so let’s opt for the alcohol wipes instead of the hydrogen peroxide please.”

“All right, but I bet you’d look smokin’ with some blonde highlights,” Holtz winked, causing Erin to blush again. 

Putting on her goggles and flipping down the magnifier, Holtz turned on some work lights and got down to business. She pulled out a few bobby pins from her own updo to better hold aside Erin’s hair, disinfected the other woman’s scalp and the tweezers that the physicist handed her and, as carefully as possible, began to pull small shards of glass out of Erin’s skin.

There was a gentleness to the engineer’s steady touch that caused Erin to suppress a shudder as her girlfriend’s hands held her head, occasionally brushing through her hair in search of more glass. Those shudders soon turned into suppressed flinches as the sting of antiseptic and the tugging of glass intensified. 

Erin tried to focus on the clinking of glass as the small pile grew in the jar Holtz was using as a receptacle. One tug in particular hurt enough that Erin couldn’t stop her pained gasp.

Holtz leaned back to gauge Erin’s reaction. “You okay there, hot stuff?”

“Mm-hmm, keep going.”

Holtz gently but efficiently finished the work at hand, disinfecting Erin’s scalp once more before removing the bobby pins and disposing of the glass fragments, frowning into the jar at the objects that had just been digging into her girlfriend’s head. Erin was standing when Holtz returned, her fingers busy fiddling with the hem of her shirt.

“Thanks, Holtzy.”

Pinching the bridge of her nose, Holtz let out an annoyed puff of breath. “Don’t thank me, Erin. It’s my fault you got hurt.”

“It’s your fault that an obnoxious ghost decided to crash through a window,” Erin deadpanned, her brows raised in skepticism.

Holtz’ hand smacked against her leg. “You know what I mean.” She brushed a hand through her curls and took a seat on the stool. “My weapons should’ve worked faster...better...something, and you wouldn’t have been hurt.” Holtz looked down at her hands. “You all could have been hurt.”

“Whoa,” said Erin, moving to stand in front of Holtz, placing her warm hands on the troubled engineer’s shoulders. “This was in no way your fault. And your weapons worked flawlessly. We simply weren’t expecting the situation we walked in to, but we rallied and figured it out.” Erin sat herself down on Holtz' lap so they were eye level. “We all blame ourselves when things don’t go exactly smoothly. We all care about each other so much, but I think that’s one of our strengths. We have each other’s backs and make damn sure we don’t repeat our slip ups.  
Yeah, we still have some kinks to work out, but what do you expect from an emerging field of research that involves a lot of explosives and angry spirits?” 

“Well when you put it like that.” Holtz cracked a smile, this time it reached her eyes along with that familiar new idea excitement Erin had come to recognize. 

“Care to share that thought I know is brewing in your brilliant head?”

An enthusiastic kiss was placed on Erin’s cheek. “Personal proton shields. I’ll rig them up to our suits, they’ll be lightweight, and--we’ll still have to watch out for tangible objects--but they’ll provide each of us with a protective barrier against the more aggressive ghosties. Unless… ooh, I feel a Star Trek marathon coming on. There might be something to that deflector shield technology.”

“Look at us. You’re stressing out over machines and I’m downplaying injuries.”

“Yeah, we’re a couple of exhausted messes.” 

“Well, if you’re going to be someone’s mess, I’m glad you’re my mess.”

“Aw, back atcha you big ol’ cheeseball,” grinned Holtz, leaning up to boop Erin’s nose with her own.

The two looked up when they heard Abby enter the room. “Speaking of cheese, the pizza I ordered just arrived.” Abby eyed them both. “Everything okay up here?”

Holtz stood up, easing Erin off her lap. “It will be after pizza!” She sprinted across the lab, shouting over her shoulder, “I call middle cushion, time to get my snuggle on.”

Abby and Erin shared an amused look, grinning with affection as they watched their engineer vault down the fireman’s pole. 

“If she falls asleep during the movie,” said Abby as the two started down the stairs, “your shoulder gets to be the pillow this time. Your girlfriend, your drool.”

**Author's Note:**

> I got a tumblr account but I mostly have no idea what I'm doing. If you want to watch me stumble around I'd love some more people to talk to: [amaziliaberyllina](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/amaziliaberyllina)


End file.
